By now you may have heard about Rob Gusky’s plan to come back to his old hometown in June to commemorate the 1895 New York Times Tri-State Relay Bicycle Race by riding from NYC to Riverton on June 8 with a few newfound friends he met on the Internet.

No kidding. He is serious. If he and his buds can pedal a hundred miles and leave us with a historical sign when it’s all over, then I think I can pitch in.

In 2008, Ed Gilmore lent me his bicycle track photo to scan. Recently I retouched that classic, though damaged image, and offered two print sizes to Rob as perks for donors who give toward the sign fund though the secure Indiegogo website page.

bike track perk, web resolution

One is an 11×14 inch professionally printed photo that very closely matches the proportions of Ed’s original photo. It’s just more contrasty ( a technical term), and I left in just enough scratches and dings to give it that patina of an old sepia cabinet card.

Available for a $35 donation.

For the other, I noticed that there was a horizontal sweet spot of that image that would make a great 10×30 inch panorama. Available for a $70 donation.

bike track pano perk web resolution

I also gathered together the latest bits about the long-gone Riverton track and bike races, old and new, and put them in a special 4 page issue of the Gaslight News and include a copy with each photo.

Suitable for framing, each photo is placed on Styrofoam board and wrapped in cellophane with the newsletter enclosed in the back. (These files, obviously at a lower resolution, illustrate the proportions.)

dining room table workshop

I urge you to visit the sites for information and please tell your friends. Not to sound too PBS, but if every person who thought “Yeah, Rob, that’s cool” or “liked” something about it on a page gave a dollar, the fundraising would be over tomorrow.

Every and any amount gets us closer to that goal.

What will be cool, I think, is that whenever you look at that sign you will be able to say you had a part in getting it done.

Phyllis Rodgers will have a display up at the New Leaf soon. You can see the special issue newsletter (at right) and posters I made to promote the race (at left) in the above photo. Note the size of the panorama. Both 11×14 and 10×30 prints will fit in standard size frames.

Somebody asked me what I do with myself now that I am retired. – John McCormick